MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – Two Vermont women have been indicted on Medicaid fraud charges as part of the National Health Care Fraud Takedown.
Vermont’s attorney general said Yvonne Wescom, 35, of Newport, and Darci Sanderson, 38, of Brattleboro, were separately charged with submitting false timesheets.
Wescom is accused of defrauding Vermont Medicaid of more than $15,000. Sanderson is accused of defrauding Vermont Medicaid of more than $24,000.
Wescom pleaded not guilty in court on Tuesday.
Sanderson appeared in court last week and also pleaded not guilty.
The attorney general also said Sanderson was working with a co-defendant, who is expected to be arraigned later this month.
The National Health Care Fraud Takedown is a coordinated effort by Medicaid Fraud Control Units to address fraud and protect federal and state health care programs.
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THE HASHFLARE “CLOUD MINING” PONZI SCHEME (GLOBAL/ESTONIA)
Date: February 13, 2025 (Guilty Pleas) Perpetrators: Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin
Case Description: This $577 million cryptocurrency fraud remains one of the largest digital asset scams in history, with major legal developments concluding in 2025. Potapenko and Turogin operated “Hashflare,” which they marketed as a massive cryptocurrency mining operation. Hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide purchased “mining contracts,” believing they were renting hash power to mine Bitcoin. In reality, the duo was running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
They created fake customer dashboards that showed “real-time” mining profits, but the money being paid out was simply the capital of newer investors. They laundered the proceeds through shell companies to purchase luxury real estate and a fleet of high-end vehicles. After a massive international investigation involving the FBI and Estonian authorities, the pair agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. This case underscores the “Cyber-enabled Fraud” warning issued by the FATF in early 2026: as technology evolves, the scale of fraud moves from local millions to global billions in the blink of an eye.
Link to Original: ACFE – High Profile Fraud of 2025